Here it comes…
10th March, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Open Source Civic Engagement Platform “Kajoo” ready to launch at SXSW
2011 is already the year of Internet-fuelled civic revolution. The immediacy and reach of the social media now provides not just a powerful way of connecting, but also a new sense of citizenship to communities around the world.
Kajoo looks beyond today’s revolutions and explores what civic engagement looks like in the age of social media. It has an engaging interface that enables users to earn points and rewards for reporting opportunities for civic improvement, proposing solutions, and implementing those solutions.
Examples could be:
- Beautifying a park
- Restoring old buildings
- Fixing or sealing roads
- Repairing fences
- Improving policing in areas where violence is prevalent
- And many more - its up to our users to decide!
Kajoo is designed to be usable from web browsers, smartphones and “feature phones” in dozens of languages, maximising the global reach of the platform. It’s simple enough to be embraced by non-technical users, yet also provides a powerful data-set that municipal governments can use to show measurable improvements in quality of life.
Kajoo is Free Software, able to be downloaded, modified and redeployed by cities around the world. In addition, Kajoo.org provides a hosted version that can be used by organisations for free during the beta period.
Our wish is for Kajoo to become a key way that citizens and governments assess how effectively they are meeting the challenges of their world. Through embracing open governance standards like Open311, we will make all the data on Kajoo sites available for analysis and visualisation through the fast-growing ecosystems of tools that adhere to these standards.
In the 2 days since Kajoo was conceived, it is already launched for Austix TX and is recruiting participants. But, more than that, the team has already received enquiries and offers of support from NGO’s, citizens and city governments around the world including Rio, Nairobi, Toronto, New York and many more.
To try Kajoo, sign up for a beta account at www.kajoo.org.
If you’re a hacker, try downloading Kajoo and making a version for your city. Grab the source today at https://github.com/mjording/kajoo.
Look out for the Kajoo team at South by South West in Austin, TX between the 10th and 14th of March.
Contacts:
Daniel Walmsley. dan@kajoo.org 347 479 0512
Hacker, Product Manager
Sara Farmer, sara@kajoo.org
Manager, Subject Matter Expert, Business Development
Matt Jording, matt@kajoo.org
Hacker, Open Source Community Manager:
Chris Carella, chris@kajoo.org
Game Designer, Social Media, Marketing and Publicity
Francisco Hui, francisco@kajoo.org
UX, Design and Front-End Implementation
